Queen of the ball

University of Alabama senior Hill Luscher rules Mobile Mardi Gras

By Carmen Sisson Special to The Tuscaloosa News

Published: Tuesday, February 8, 2005 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, February 7, 2005 at 10:16 p.m.

MOBILE | On Saturday afternoon, Dr. Harry Luscher and his wife, Camille Luscher, flitted from room to room of their home. They were barefooted and beaming as they tried to get dressed between periodically stopping to refill champagne glasses and speak to guests.

University of Alabama alumnus Guy Coleman Oswalt III sits with University of Alabama senior Hill Luscher after their coronation as the Mobile Carnival Association's 2005 King Felix III and Queen Hill Luscher at the Arthur Outlaw Convention Center in Mobile on Saturday night. The couple will ride in today's King and Queen's parade.

Photo | Carmen Sisson

Gift baskets resplendent in Mardi Gras finery lined the countertops. On the back porch, photographers made last-minute equipment checks, filling every nook and cranny with softboxes and reflectors for an upcoming portrait session. From the bedroom came the sounds of muffled laughter -- a transformation was under way as the Luschers' daughter, University of Alabama senior Hill Luscher, 21, prepared for her coronation as the Mobile Carnival Association's 2005 Mardi Gras Queen that night.

This time-honored tradition, infused with pageantry, is surrounded by such mystery that even the queen herself was surprised to learn that she had been chosen. Her mother said she struggled to keep the secret for almost a week before breaking the news to her daughter as they shopped in Atlanta last March.

There is no application process for the position, and the methods for selection are kept top-secret as well. Hill Luscher said that even her sisters at UA's Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority did not know she had been chosen until an article appeared in the Mobile Register on Jan. 23 announcing her debut as queen and UA alumnus Guy Coleman Oswalt III, 26, as King Felix III. Even the members of her court did not know that she had been chosen until Thanksgiving when the party season officially got under way, and they began attending events together.

She said it was particularly hard to keep it from her friends after Hurricane Ivan in September, when the dress shop where her dress was being made was destroyed. She and her mother had been working with Pensacola, Fla., dress designer Sarah Brown for months on her Italian Renaissance-style Vera Wang gown, which would be complemented by a 67-pound, 16-foot-long train encrusted with 1,440 rhinestones, topaz marguerites and Austrian flower-shaped beads.

A family friend called them after seeing a photograph of the shop in the newspaper after the hurricane. The front facade had been ripped off, leaving the three-story building completely exposed to the storm's fury. Luckily, the dress had been spared, but it created a stressful situation for Hill Luscher.

She said she spent "a ton" of Fridays making the four-hour drive to Mobile, leaving Tuscaloosa as soon as she got off work at 6 p.m. She would collaborate with Brown on Saturdays about her dress, then leave Mobile at 6:30 a.m. Sunday mornings to be back to Tuscaloosa by noon for her job as a student athletic trainer with the UA gymnastics team.

"There was just so much that I had to do," she said. In January, her time became even more limited, forcing her to take the spring semester off from school. She plans to graduate in December with a bachelor's degree in human environmental sciences and study physical therapy in graduate school.

"What draws me to physical therapy is helping people, and being a part of the team," she said. "But I am very feminine. I love clothes and jewelry. I love everything that comes with being a queen.

"When I first saw my dress, it was amazing. It is everything I wanted it to be. When I put it on, I really do feel like a queen. It makes me feel so special."

For the days between her coronation Saturday night and her final appearance in today's King and Queen's parade at 1 p.m., she has been special. She was the guest of honor at her coronation and the king's supper and dance that followed. She was a hostess at a luncheon Monday.

And of course between it all there were the parties -- several each night -- where she arrived by limousine with a police escort, flanked by the members of her court, arms laden with gifts and trinkets to give to her loyal subjects.

It is an honor that she said she never imagined, even though she comes from a long line of Mardi Gras royalty, from her sister, Doris Hebard Luscher, who served as a juvenile queen in 1994 and first lady-in-waiting in 2002 to her father, grandfather, grandmother and great-grandfather, all of whom hold a place in Mobile's Mardi Gras history.

"Every little girl in Mobile hopes she will be the queen, but you never really think that you will be," Luscher said. "I knew that I wanted to be involved in some way, but I had no idea I would be queen."

Sally Tonsmeire Morrissette, who served as queen in 1955 and is the mother of Tuscaloosa resident Shelly Kyle, said Luscher's reign brings back a lot of happy memories for her half a century later.

"It's quite an elegant feeling, being taken everywhere in a limousine," Morrissette said. "For those four days, people treat you differently, and she should enjoy it to the fullest because you never get that opportunity again."

Luscher said she is prepared for a bit of a letdown after the parade today. Last year's queen, UA graduate Whiting Inge, has told her what to expect.

"I will represent the whole city everywhere that I am for these four days," Luscher said on Saturday "That to me is so special. But Tuesday is so sad.

Tuesday night, they drop you off at the hotel and you're finished. You've had this amazing week, this fairytale week. You're used to everybody being excited to see you. But come Tuesday night, it's over -- no one cares."

That is only half true, said David Cooper, chairman of the Mobile Carnival Association. He said that as the 101st queen, Luscher's name forever will be a part of Mobile's 133-year Mardi Gras tradition. Her dress, train, crown and scepter will be placed in the new William and Emily Hearin Carnival Museum in Mobile and will be part of a traveling exhibit that will tour the country and spread the story of the port city's rich Mardi Gras heritage.

"It's a state of mind -- a spirit," Cooper said. "Mobile has always valued family and tradition, and to pass down the tradition of being royalty is kind of uniquely Southern. At one time, it was only a social honor. But today, it is equally a civic responsibility. Still, it's all in fun. We don't take any of this royalty too seriously."

<p>MOBILE | On Saturday afternoon, Dr. Harry Luscher and his wife, Camille Luscher, flitted from room to room of their home. They were barefooted and beaming as they tried to get dressed between periodically stopping to refill champagne glasses and speak to guests.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Gift baskets resplendent in Mardi Gras finery lined the countertops. On the back porch, photographers made last-minute equipment checks, filling every nook and cranny with softboxes and reflectors for an upcoming portrait session. From the bedroom came the sounds of muffled laughter -- a transformation was under way as the Luschers' daughter, University of Alabama senior Hill Luscher, 21, prepared for her coronation as the Mobile Carnival Association's 2005 Mardi Gras Queen that night.</p><p>This time-honored tradition, infused with pageantry, is surrounded by such mystery that even the queen herself was surprised to learn that she had been chosen. Her mother said she struggled to keep the secret for almost a week before breaking the news to her daughter as they shopped in Atlanta last March.</p><p>There is no application process for the position, and the methods for selection are kept top-secret as well. Hill Luscher said that even her sisters at UA's Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority did not know she had been chosen until an article appeared in the Mobile Register on Jan. 23 announcing her debut as queen and UA alumnus Guy Coleman Oswalt III, 26, as King Felix III. Even the members of her court did not know that she had been chosen until Thanksgiving when the party season officially got under way, and they began attending events together.</p><p>She said it was particularly hard to keep it from her friends after Hurricane Ivan in September, when the dress shop where her dress was being made was destroyed. She and her mother had been working with Pensacola, Fla., dress designer Sarah Brown for months on her Italian Renaissance-style Vera Wang gown, which would be complemented by a 67-pound, 16-foot-long train encrusted with 1,440 rhinestones, topaz marguerites and Austrian flower-shaped beads.</p><p>A family friend called them after seeing a photograph of the shop in the newspaper after the hurricane. The front facade had been ripped off, leaving the three-story building completely exposed to the storm's fury. Luckily, the dress had been spared, but it created a stressful situation for Hill Luscher.</p><p>She said she spent "a ton" of Fridays making the four-hour drive to Mobile, leaving Tuscaloosa as soon as she got off work at 6 p.m. She would collaborate with Brown on Saturdays about her dress, then leave Mobile at 6:30 a.m. Sunday mornings to be back to Tuscaloosa by noon for her job as a student athletic trainer with the UA gymnastics team.</p><p>"There was just so much that I had to do," she said. In January, her time became even more limited, forcing her to take the spring semester off from school. She plans to graduate in December with a bachelor's degree in human environmental sciences and study physical therapy in graduate school.</p><p>"What draws me to physical therapy is helping people, and being a part of the team," she said. "But I am very feminine. I love clothes and jewelry. I love everything that comes with being a queen.</p><p>"When I first saw my dress, it was amazing. It is everything I wanted it to be. When I put it on, I really do feel like a queen. It makes me feel so special."</p><p>For the days between her coronation Saturday night and her final appearance in today's King and Queen's parade at 1 p.m., she has been special. She was the guest of honor at her coronation and the king's supper and dance that followed. She was a hostess at a luncheon Monday.</p><p>And of course between it all there were the parties -- several each night -- where she arrived by limousine with a police escort, flanked by the members of her court, arms laden with gifts and trinkets to give to her loyal subjects.</p><p>It is an honor that she said she never imagined, even though she comes from a long line of Mardi Gras royalty, from her sister, Doris Hebard Luscher, who served as a juvenile queen in 1994 and first lady-in-waiting in 2002 to her father, grandfather, grandmother and great-grandfather, all of whom hold a place in Mobile's Mardi Gras history.</p><p>"Every little girl in Mobile hopes she will be the queen, but you never really think that you will be," Luscher said. "I knew that I wanted to be involved in some way, but I had no idea I would be queen."</p><p>Sally Tonsmeire Morrissette, who served as queen in 1955 and is the mother of Tuscaloosa resident Shelly Kyle, said Luscher's reign brings back a lot of happy memories for her half a century later.</p><p>"It's quite an elegant feeling, being taken everywhere in a limousine," Morrissette said. "For those four days, people treat you differently, and she should enjoy it to the fullest because you never get that opportunity again."</p><p>Luscher said she is prepared for a bit of a letdown after the parade today. Last year's queen, UA graduate Whiting Inge, has told her what to expect.</p><p>"I will represent the whole city everywhere that I am for these four days," Luscher said on Saturday "That to me is so special. But Tuesday is so sad.</p><p>Tuesday night, they drop you off at the hotel and you're finished. You've had this amazing week, this fairytale week. You're used to everybody being excited to see you. But come Tuesday night, it's over -- no one cares."</p><p>That is only half true, said David Cooper, chairman of the Mobile Carnival Association. He said that as the 101st queen, Luscher's name forever will be a part of Mobile's 133-year Mardi Gras tradition. Her dress, train, crown and scepter will be placed in the new William and Emily Hearin Carnival Museum in Mobile and will be part of a traveling exhibit that will tour the country and spread the story of the port city's rich Mardi Gras heritage.</p><p>"It's a state of mind -- a spirit," Cooper said. "Mobile has always valued family and tradition, and to pass down the tradition of being royalty is kind of uniquely Southern. At one time, it was only a social honor. But today, it is equally a civic responsibility. Still, it's all in fun. We don't take any of this royalty too seriously."</p>